On agent focus agreement in Proto-Mayan

Abstract

In many Mayan languages, a special construction is used to focus subjects of transitive verbs, the so-called agent focus construction. Though this construction has two participants, it is morphologically intransitive and agrees with only one argument. Modern Mayan languages differ in which argument is cross-referenced in the agent focus construction, with some of them showing agreement with the agent, others with the patient and others with either the agent or the patient depending on their respective position on a person hierarchy. All of these patterns have been proposed by different authors to be the original pattern found in Proto-Mayan. Based on evidence from colonial Q’eqchi’, this paper suggests that in Proto-Mayan the verb did not agree at all in the agent focus construction. The variety of different agreement patterns in modern Mayan languages reflects the fact that agreement in the agent focus construction developed only after Proto-Mayan had split up.